MEXICO CITY, Mexico (Thursday, August 8, 2025) - Real Salt Lake (0-0-1, 1pt.) opened its inaugural Torneo Internacional campaign with a scoreless draw against Uruguayan Primera División side, Club Atlético Peñarol (0-0-1, 1pt.).
Torneo Internacional matches are composed of two 35-minute halves for a 70-minute match. The first few minutes consisted of the two international sides gauging each other's style. Real Salt Lake eventually came out as the dominant side, maintaining the majority of possession.
RSL Academy accelerated the tempo in the final five minutes of the first half, creating three high-quality chances. The Claret-and-Cobalt’s first real chance of the match arrived in the 30th minute, courtesy of Rowan Martin. The crafty midfielder created space for himself at the top of the area, surrounded by Peñarol defenders before Martin fired a shot to the near post. collected by the keeper.
Two more quality chances came for RSL in the final minute of the opening stanza, as an RSL corner kick by Martin found a Peñarol defender who nearly scored in his own net attempting to clear the RSL threat, narrowly soaring over the crossbar. The Claret-and-Cobalt nearly converted on the next corner awarded from the poor clearance, but defender Kevin Sroga’s tap-in attempt inside the six-yard box was deflected away at the last moment to end the half.
A back-and-forth battle ensued out of the half as both sides exchanged flurries of possession. The match flipped on its side for the American side after vice-captain Camron Estala earned a straight red card after a risky tackle with five minutes remaining, Estala now missing Friday’s match against Orlando City as consequence of the ejection. Smelling blood in the water, Peñarol upped its intensity seeking a winner, with RSL manager Phil Cousins’ side managing to escape with a draw, nearly winning the match after Martin’s 35+1’ shot attempt was narrowly gathered by the keeper.
Goalkeeper Konstantinos Kyriazis claims his first clean-sheet of the tournament after logging six combined clean sheets in last season’s Generation adidas and MLS NEXT Cup.
Group 2 Standings: Team (W-L-D) pts
- Real Salt Lake (0-0-1) 1pt
- Orlando City SC (0-0-1) 1pt
- Club Atlético Peñarol (0-0-1(0-0-1(0-0-1) 1pt
- Selección Nacional de México - Sub 16 (0-1-0) 0pts
Real Salt Lake Fixtures: Results Italicized
8/28: Club Atlético Peñarol: 0-0
8/29: Orlando City SC
8/30: Pumas UNAM
9/1: Rayados de Monterrey
9/2: Selección Nacional de México - Sub 16
9/3: Santos Laguna
9/5: Necaxa
Real Salt Lake Academy is the official MLS NEXT affiliate of MLS side Real Salt Lake. After a historic 2024-25 season that saw RSL become the first academy to have a squad win both the Generation adidas Cup and MLS NEXT Cup in the same season, the group now looks to build upon a firm foundation. Leading Major League Soccer in all-time homegrown signings, RSL welcomed Omar Marquez, Aiden Hezarkhani, Owen Anderson, and Gio Villa in January of this year, all RSL Academy products as part of its 42 homegrown signings after inking their deals with the Claret-and-Cobalt.
